


Salvage Mission

by Leni



Category: Angel: the Series, Firefly
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-27
Updated: 2010-10-27
Packaged: 2017-10-12 22:20:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/129739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leni/pseuds/Leni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cordelia Chase arrives to Persephone. (post You're Welcome, post BDM)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Salvage Mission

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Zandra_x at [Choose Your Author ficathon](http://cya_ficathon.livejournal.com/info).

_She feels lighter. She feels heavier._

She sees thousands of lights, stretching across the city, across the whole world. She flies past them, gaining speed as she goes, letting the lights blur into sky and white noise.

She goes faster and faster...

...and then there's only black.

 

 **I. Cordelia**

She looked down at herself. At least this time they'd picked something that matched her hair. After her last assignment, she'd let them know that orange was _not_ her color, and that a ticked off Seer was the last thing they wanted to deal with. She tried to gather some clues as to where, and when, she was, and thankfully the same clothes were a good start. "Okay, Japan it is." She checked herself and smoothed down the fabric. "Nice." If she'd known they were this comfortable, she'd have tried kimonos sooner - say, when she'd been alive.

"I'm sorry, mister." She reached out to the nearest shoulder around.

A gruff man stopped grudgingly before her, eyeing her clothes with obvious distrust. Note to self: They'd given her a higher-than-medium class status in appearance. Sometimes she loved working for the good guys. "What's the way to the marketplace?"

The man pointed to his left with his thumb, then opened his mouth for further directions -

 _Vrooom!_

"What the - !" She jumped backwards, skinning her elbows against the wall behind her.

To add insult to injury, the stranger looked at her incredulously for a long moment and then set off in a deep guffaw.

Cordelia stared, then turned around as proudly as she could under the circumstances. "Oh, leave me alone!" she mumbled. And if the man thought her complaint was addressed to him, the Powers above certainly would know better.

*

Spaceships.

She leaned against the cleanest spot of the alley, head tilted back to stare at the sky. "Now you've gone and done it, Chase." She paid no attention to the people around her. She never stayed in one place long enough to make a lasting impression. "And me without my favorite parachute."

"Wha's a pa-ra-jout?"

Cordelia looked down. A small child was sitting on his haunches beside her, looking up curiously. "Wanna have a piece?" And he held up a glossy yellow mass in his bare hands. Looking closely, she discovered a few spots of the same color around his mouth. "No, thanks."

"I ain't chargin'," the kid mourned and attacked his - treat? - again. Mouth full, he charged in again, "You 'ere lookin' for work?"

A dozen lifetimes ago, Cordelia Chase would have disdained the chance to talk to this urchin - unless said urchin was being attacked by a vamp, or a demon, or about to become a demon himself - but this was a dozen lifetimes later and casual conversation seemed a luxury they should never be. "Sort of." Then, because that answer pretty much killed any chance to continue their talk, she added, "Anything you can recommend me?"

The boy actually frowned in thought. "Dunno. Ma Iris works here, this same corner, all ev'nin'. Maybe she lets you use it in the mornin'?"

It actually took her a second to catch his meaning. When she did, she straightened (she'd unconsciously bent to hear him better) and shook her head. "No!" This was only a boy, she told herself and forced her tone to lower. "I don't do that kind of work."

"Really?" He seemed unconvinced, leaning forward on his toes to look closer at her clothes and then back at her face. "But you're pretty." He licked his piece of food, then slurped on it noisily. "What'cha do if you don't do no whorin'?"

Note to self, the second: Class stations are in the eye of the beholder. She almost felt tempted to curse the damn kimono. It'd seemed such a nice idea at first. "I'm a traveler." Whatever the place, whatever the time, that was always the best answer.

"Oh." His eyes lit up. "You been up in the black?"

Blue skies were only physics playing with the brain, she remembered with a jolt. Beyond the illusion, there was only - "Sure," she said self-confidently. What was a little space when you were a favorite toy for the Powers That Be?

The boy gave her a happy smile, his yellow sludge temporarily forgotten. "You lookin' for a ship, then, right?"

Cordelia shrugged. "Might as well."

He finally came to his feet and, without warning, enclosed her hand in one of his dirty ones. "Hey!" she tried to protest, but he was already tugging her back into the busiest streets. After a couple minutes of keeping apace, Cordelia decided she was thankful she'd found herself a guide. The vaguely urban part of town where she'd made her apparition was rapidly changing into a hazier scene, full of hazaphardly placed food stands and men loading and unloading sacks from floating cars.

"Watch out!" she cried out, catching her heel on the edge of an enormous crate. "Please don't break, please?" she rushed out as she toppled over, barely managed to support herself onto the open top of the same crate. Her hand came hard against some nearby, cool surface but in the next second the boy was impatiently jerking her back to her feet. "Serves me right," she panted as she tried to avoid bumping into the strangers around her. "I should never have tried to be polite."

Then she noticed that her free hand wasn't so free anymore. In her hurry, she must have grasped onto whatever that crate was carrying, and it'd been so small she'd kept it even as she ran away. "Just perfect." On top of everything, she was a thief now; and she hadn't even had time to check what she'd been stealing. "This better be amusing you up there."

No divine sign deigned to answer her.

*

"Eavesdown," she repeated, looking at the chaos around her.

Her self-designated companion nodded happily. "Best haven in all Persephone, ma'am. Ships from the whole verse and back to the whole verse." His eyes shone wistfully as he glanced at the gigantic spaceships stationed right in front of them. "That one is my all favorite. Isn't she amazing?"

Cordelia followed his pointing finger. A large contraption of metal gleaming in the sunlight, it looked imposing from her position. "It's... big."

He snorted, giving her that look boys had been given girls for centuries. "What good makes you travelin' if you ain't able to pick a gorram good ship on sight."

"Good point," she started.... She'd been going to say something, but the words never again came her way. Because behind that enormous vessel, Cordelia saw -

 _A table. Hands reaching out from different places, with different skins. Voices running over each other, becoming words and -_

"Don't let me hit my head," someone said in her voice.

 _She's lighter. She's heavier._

She's floating in a small room (dark, it's getting dark).

"I know you are there." Curious eyes studying her (dark, so dark). They surround her... "Let me hold her," and a child is taken from her arms. "It was meant to be," the voice continues, and the accompanying smile is a beautiful sound in her ears...

...then all washes away in a sea of black.

"Ma'am?" Her shoulder was being sharply pulled. "Ma'am!"

"'s fine." When she opened her eyes, it was to find the boy (she really needed to find out his name) back on his haunches beside her. "Was I out long?" At least it'd been a nice vision, she thought passingly. It'd be extra nice if she could make sense out of it - that spaceship would help, Cordelia knew that with certainty. She had to get to the spaceship and find out what her purpose was. She managed to prop herself onto her elbows, and though her right one burned a little from its earlier meeting with a wall, it was bearable.

The boy's mouth was set angrily, almost disappointed.

"What now?"

"You've no money, not any credit in your pockets," he finally said accusingly, passing his candy - or at least that's what Cordelia had finally decided the mass must be - frettingly from one hand to another. "Why were you playin' me?"

"Hey!" She pulled herself onto a sitting position. And realized she'd been dragged into a more secluded spot than where they'd been standing when the vision hit. "You carried me?"

The child shrugged. "People don't get careful where they step."

" _You_ carried _me_?" Cordelia narrowed her eyes, a suspicion forming in her mind. "What's your name?"

"Cecile."

Cordelia closed her eyes. No wonder she'd been dragged through the streets like so much as a rag doll. "Great." She drew her legs into her chest and rested her forehead on her knees, all too aware of the shifting girl beside her. "Now I get to play Watcher."

"Ma'am?"

 

 **II. Mal.**

The last thing Mal expected to see as he climbed up the ramp was his mechanic and his defacto pilot running across the cargo area, being chased by a very loud child. He'd no sooner put one foot inside when River stopped and turned around to look directly at him. From the corner of his eye, Mal noticed their visitor had done the same, albeit the little thing was timidly backing back at the sight of him.

"Kaylee!"

Kaylee froze mid-movement, still unaware that the game had ended, and offered him a nervous smile. "Cap'n!" She dusted off her coverall as she walked up to him, "I thought you'd gone find us a job."

"And find I did." A raised eyebrow would let her know he wasn't up for more stalling. He nodded brusquely towards the cowering child. "You runnin' a daycare here? Serenity ain't no place for no curious child," - his voice lowered to a whisper - "especially when we've got River playin' sitter."

"River's fine, sir." Kaylee's eyes had rounded up in that expression of hers that usually meant he was about to kiss goodbye to a nice sum if he didn't want to die in space, or that she was trying to smuggle in a kitten. He had the nasty impression this'd be worse. "The girl's a passenger. Her and her auntie."

" _Shenme tamadema?_ " he hissed. Kaylee cringed at his tone. "We take no passengers, Kaylee. Gorramit, that's why we're busting our asses in these _gos se_ jobs so we can fly with no extra eyes." He stopped and bent his head to rub the bridge of his nose. "Contract is dissolved. Whatever 'auntie' gave you, give it back. Where's the lady anyway, can't she watch the girl herself?" Sparing a glance for said girl, "And stop crawling under the crates, little one. No one wants nothin' of you except to leave my ship."

The girl's eyes widened, then relaxed slightly when River appeared at her side and put her hand on the top of the dirty-blond head. "Big is danger, guns make you hide," she started in a sing-song voice. Then she slid down until she and the girl were of the same height, and her hand started a soothing motion through the short hair. "She's never seen a good man before."

Mal put a hand pointedly to his own gunbelt. "And she ain't startin' now." He focused back on his mechanic, "What're you waitin' for, Kaylee? You've got ladies to disembark back to beautiful Eavesdown before they see anythin' they shouldn't."

"Too late."

River's words made Mal stare down at Kaylee. "What's this, too late?" No answer. "Kaylee?"

"Miss Cordelia is in the infirmary." Kaylee rushed out. She was now looking directly at her shoes. "With Simon."

*

"It'd be suspicious if we made them leave now," Zoë looked intently at Mal.

He passed a tired hand through his head. "It's not as if they're paying us. No money, no responsibility."

"But they'll pay once we get there!"

Jayne looked up and scowled at Kaylee. "If she's so sure, I say their food comes from her cut."

"Something to consider," Mal agreed, noting that Kaylee knew better than to protest. For the first time since she'd arrived to Serenity, Mal felt angry at the girl. Letting strangers on board, of all things, practically shoving their resident fugitives under their noses. It made no difference that said strangers were just a little girl and her loudmouth aunt, anybody with eyes could well call in the Alliance. "Because Zoë is right. We throw them out and they might start wonderin' why, makin' questions and such. We don't need that kind of publicity, not so close to the Core."

"They won't talk," River said, a statement rather than a thought.

Mal shook his head. "Not in this, River. You know I've got a whole new appreciatin' of your brain, but 'ts too risky this time."

River sat sulkily down on the floor and crossed her arms over her raised knees. "They'll have no chance," she said, glaring up at him while her nose and mouth were buried behind her arms. "Too busy running like mice from the cat."

On one of the couches, resting happily on Simon, Kaylee nodded. "River's right. I think. They don't have nothin' to go by, Persephone is a mean place to anybody, but those two have little chance. They need us, cap'n."

River smiled proudly. "You translate well."

"Need?" Mal ignored the girls' conspiring looks "Need some common sense, 's what. Lettin' themselves be jumped in the docks and robbed of all but what they wore." He shook his head. "I don't need more trouble-magnets on my ship."

"Unless they have eyes on their backs," Simon spoke up, his voice slightly muffled by Kaylee's hair, "I don't see how they'd have avoided the muggery."

"They are hurt?" Zoë asked, a frown to her face.

Simon straightened, ignoring Kaylee's objection at the change in position. "Not the girl, luckily. But Miss Chase showed some scrapes, as well as a solid hit to the back of her head, probably with some blunt object."

Jayne snorted. "Fugi doc attending a girl called Chase." He nodded at the captain, amusement plainly written on his face. "Good thing you don't buy signs, Mal, or you'd be marchin'em out back into Badger's waitin' arms. You know he'd like a girl like her," he whistled. "Gorram right he would."

Everybody turned to look at him, their opinion as clear as a new moon's sky. He sighed. "Jayne." The man raised his head inquiringly. "You've just given me the only good reason to keep'em. Now go and set up a bed in our free room, might as well make it comfortable."

"What free room?"

"Shepherd's." Zoë answered for him, standing up too. "You want me to give the good news, sir?"

Damn woman probably thought he'd scare the girl even more. "No. If we're breathin' the same air for the next month, might as well get introductions over with." He turned around and started walking away. They should be still in Inara's shuttle; she'd offered to keep them occupied while the crew made their decision. Finally all that tea ceremony was good for something. "Kaylee, see that we're ready to take off. The sooner we leave, the better I'll feel about this mess."

"Yes, cap'n!" She said cheerily, but made no movement to disentangle herself from the doctor's hold. Mal made a note to have a serious talk about that - again.

"It's not the Shepherd's room anymore," he heard River's voice behind him. "But she battles evil all the same."

Great. As if he didn't have enough troubles.

 

 ** Four weeks later. **

 

 **III. Cordelia.**

Cordelia had never been a patient woman. A life of privilege in Sunnydale had taught her that, given the right incentive, everybody could be made to move at her pace. Later, facing demons and saving the world, she'd learned that patience was a virtue best kept for those who didn't risk their lives daily. _She_ would enjoy life at its fullest.

Dying young had only reinforced the notion.

Almost a month inside Serenity was one of the dullest experiences she'd ever gone through, and as thankful as she was that nobody seemed evil, demonic or about to sacrifice her, she couldn't help the huge yawn as she lazily paged through the slim book.

"Figures I'd end up in space before I willingly read Shakespeare," she muttered to herself.

The book was Inara's, who'd added it to the dress and underthings Cordelia had needed to borrow. Kaylee had offered a change of clothes first, but Cordelia had barely been able to suppress the alarm she'd felt before she declined. It didn't matter that her body was actually lifelessly lying in the 21st century, astral body or not she'd dress it well. Unluckily for Kaylee, palm-sized flower-prints would never be Cordelia's style. And, as polite as Cordelia had tried to be, she'd probably hurt the girl's feelings with her denial, especially after she'd obviously asked Inara instead.

Oh well. Can't please everyone.

Besides, Kaylee seemed distracted enough with Cecile to worry too much about Cordelia's manners. To begin with, the ten-year-old had been all but ecstatic at being offered the use of some old shirts and a frayed skirt that was too long for her. Since then, Cecily had been following the older girl faithfully through Serenity, something beyond admiration and bordering on worship in her brown eyes as she watched Kaylee fiddle with the engine parts.

(("Do you like it here, Cecile?"

Cuddled next to her, the girl nods happily. "There's no screamin' an' I can have all the protein I want." Then, as if sharing a big secret, "Kaylee's great, too. The only girl-mechanic in the 'verse, and she's so nice!"

Cordelia thinks there are more female mechanics, and she has her own personal opinion about the food they're served; but neither subjects are where she wants this conversation to go. "Would you like to stay?"

Brown eyes widen impossibly. "And fly forever?"

"And fly forever," Cordelia agrees, taking her delighted expression as an affirmative.

But the joy is short-lived. "How?"

How indeed. "That's for me to worry about and little Slayers not to lose their sleep over." She brings the blanket closer around the girl's body and puts her fingers over Cecile's eyes. They close obediently. "I told you, Cecile. It's all meant to be."))

Meant to be.

Easier said than done.

Cordelia leaned back along the couch, propping her head on the hard arm, and covered her eyes with the book. She was out of her element here, she thought as she blinked tiredly into the makeshift darkness. Give her Apocalypses or errant vampire friends, but this social worker thing wasn't working too well.

"Time's over," a voice came from above her.

"River," she acknowledged the girl, moving the book down so it now rested against her chin. The teenager had slipped between the wall and the couch, and now was bending down so their dark eyes met with only some inches in-between. Cordelia smiled thinly. "Seen anything, _mèi mei_?" She wasn't as used to the mix of Mandarin and English as everyone in Serenity seemed to be, but she'd picked those words from Simon and, once told the meaning, she'd decided to use them herself. In a way, River was indeed the little sister she'd never have.

That little sister now shook her head, making some trends of hair tickle Cordelia's nose. "I don't see, silly. I only read between tilted lines."

"And it says my time's over, huh?"

River shrugged. "The girl is ours already, might as well tell us about it."

"I don't think the captain will like being told." Cordelia sighed, then reached out to pull River's long hair behind her ears. "Any idea how not to get spaced when Malcolm finds out?"

"He doesn't like being called that," and she scrunched her nose.

Cordelia smirked. "That's the point, grasshopper."

River didn't seem amused. "I'm told to set up a wave after dinner," she said seriously. Then she straightened and walked around the couch to perch on its arm, squeezed between the back and Cordelia's head. "Folks shouldn't be too happy you're arriving, he says, but they better pick you up and give him his fare money first thing after landing."

"Such love," Cordelia muttered. Then she half sat and slapped the book against the seat beside her. "Guess vacation is over."

River pouted and, fingering the edge of her pullover, asked, "Will you come back?"

Cordelia smiled but shook her head. "Whyever for? You've got all the people you'll need."

"The reluctant hero, the warrior, the wise man, the best friend -" River had raised one finger with each item, now she lifted her pinkie and put her hand over her heart. "- and the seer. A complete set."

"Down to the star-crossed, doomed-from-the-start romance," Cordelia agreed. "I can almost smell the denial in Shuttle One."

River raised an eyebrow. "That's why he captain doesn't like you."

"What can I say?" Cordelia stood to her feet and shrugged nonchalantly. "It's part of my charm."

 

 **IV. Mal.**

Finding women in his bunk wasn't meant for him.

At least, Mal thought a grim smile, Chase hadn't been naked while she waited for him. Neither was she attempting to sabotage his ship and direct them all to their doom - well, not to the sabotage at least. If she were to be believed. Which she was not. Because there was place for only one crazy female in _Serenity_ , and River had her piloting abilities on her side. Portals, demons and apocalypses? The woman was gone in the upstairs sector, alright.

Wasn't she?

It took him a moment to realize he still hadn't moved, and once he did, he decided he still needed some time to process what she'd said:

Cecile wasn't just a little orphan.

Chase herself was more than she appeared to be.

And, to his greatest chagrin, there indeed seemed to exist something like a Greater Plan, capitals very much deserved. There were threats worse than Reavers and blue-gloved hands put together, Chase had said; and while he'd sat uncharacteristically frozen in place, she'd proceeded to explain what those threats implied.

Oh, and the little girl was meant to stay in _Serenity_.

"Oh no, she is not." Mal gritted out as he pushed himself to his feet and marched up to open that hatch. Cordelia Chase may be crazy, or she might be as serious as an Alliance bulletin, but either way he had enough trouble carrying two fugitive siblings to add a little girl to the mix. They were getting down in Boros, he decided as he turned into the passenger aisle; he'd consider getting rid of Chase's tongue payment enough for the ride.

Mal slowed as he approached what'd been Book's room. He could hear River inside, her voice an indecipherable whisper. Chase's laugh answered it. "Well, River," came her voice, "I happen to think I strengthened his character."

"And now he's come to strengthen yours."

There went the surprise element, Mal thought. But Chase's reply puzzled him.

"Already?" There was a moment of silence, and then, "She grows on you, doesn't she? Wonder if she'll be a Buffy or a Faith."

"She'll make a good Cecile, I think."

A chuckle. "Point taken. Take care of her?"

"I'll make them promise." River sounded suddenly sad. "Good bye, Cordelia."

The door to the room opened, and Mal stepped forward to meet Chase and talk the whole business out. But nobody came out, and when he stepped into the room, River alone was sitting at the girl's bed as she caressed the blond head.

"Where is she?"

River tilted her head, hand mid-air. "She just told you," she said, wearing a deep frown as if disappointed it was taking him so long to understand. "She was never really here."

Somehow, it didn't surprise him that she, of all people, had been aware of this, whatever 'this' was, all along. He looked around the room again, then checked behind himself.

Cordelia Chase was nowhere in sight.

"Once in every generation," River began in a low voice, just as Chase had not an hour ago.

"I heard that already," he interrupted her. "Damn woman. Is it true?"

"Always was, captain."

Mal sighed deeply. Alliance-funded human research, he could grasp. War, bounty-hunters and greedy men he could fight. But the enemies Chase had described were still beyond his understanding. He looked down at the girl, at Cecile, trying to figure out how she'd grow up to be the strongest one on his ship, much less in the universe.

"None of us are really what we seem, Malcolm."

Chase's words again. "Don't go callin' me that," he said automatically. Wearily, he passed his hand through his hair and bent his head back, as if the ceiling held the answers he needed. The ceiling hadn't answered, but he'd taken a decision. Chase's departure proved she'd spoken the truth, and though he could still send the girl away and let her fare for herself (she was the strongest girl in the universe; what did she really need an old ship for?), he knew he wouldn't do it. And he trusted River, too, and River was looking at him entreatingly.

"Well?" She went back to pushing Cecile's hair out of her face.

Mal shrugged, as if he wasn't willingly stepping into unknown waters. "It ain't as if there's no extra space for her."

River smiled.

*

Outside _Serenity_ , a bright light shone briefly around the ship and then, just as quickly, melted back into the black.

 

The End  
07/03/08


End file.
